Lebanon at increasing risk of Lawfare
Brazil based Lawfare Institute identify growing use of corporate Lawfare.
(São Paulo, 24 June 2021) The influential Brazil based Lawfare Institute has identified Lebanon as being a country of concern in the growing use of the misuse of law for political and commercial purposes.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaking from São Paulo addressed a seminar at King’s College London – a top 10 global university – for the launch of the new publication Lawfare: Waging War through Law.
During the King’s College London event, Lebanon was identified as a country of growing concern particularly in the area of Business Lawfare where corporate entities use the tactics of Lawfare with an aim to destroy commercial and consumer opponents. Lebanese banks were identified as an area of significant concern.
Lawfare is the misuse and abuse of law for political, commercial and military ends and the authors of Lawfare: Waging War through Law Cristiano Zanin Martins, Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins and Rafael Valim explore the growing use of Lawfare around the world.
Well known Lawfare tactics include the abuse of existing laws to delegitimise and harm the adversary´s public image, use of legal procedures to restrain their freedom, to intimidate opponents, to silence them, influence public opinion negatively to anticipate judgments and curtail their right to an unbiased defence.
Lawfare and Commercial Disputes in Lebanon
There have been increasing reports from Lebanon of practices which are common to Lawfare, including misinformation and disinformation from parts of the media in order to influence the public’s perception of legal cases. Furthermore, the Lawfare Institute has expressed concern in the lack of transparency around reports of the use of government ministers as paid advisors to high profile consumer businesses.
Lebanon is of particular interest in Brazil with approximately 7 million people either having full or partial Lebanese descent. Many Brazilian citizens, who also hold Lebanese, European or American citizenship, have close commercial links with Lebanon including as individual consumers with Lebanese banks. Brazilian lawyers are exploring legal avenues similar to those being used by consumers in Europe to help individual consumers retrieve their life savings held by Lebanese banks.
Co-founder of the Lawfare Institute and President Lula’s lawyer, Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins of São Paulo based Teixeira Zanin Martins Advogados said:
“We are concerned about the ever-growing use of Lawfare globally and Lebanon has been identified as an area of particular concern. Reports coming from Beirut indicate that Lebanon is witnessing a growth in corporate Lawfare where we are seeing aggressive legal tactics employed to try and deprive the legal rights open to individuals in Lebanon as well as those with links to Lebanon in Australia, Brazil, United States, United Kingdom and across Europe.”
The King’s College London Lawfare seminar did recognise that many individual Lebanese journalists are at the forefront of identifying and challenging when law is being misused for political or commercial reasons recognising that they were working in very difficult circumstances. These Lebanese journalists show the world how those in authority can be challenged and held to account.
Lawfare
The term lawfare was created in 2001 by US army major General Charles Dunlap, and has been studied ever since in major universities such as Harvard in the United States and SOAS in the United Kingdom.
The Lawfare Institute’s mission is to produce scientific content on lawfare and the analysis of emblematic cases of the phenomenon. The Institute was created in 2017 on the initiative of lawyers Valeska Teixeira Martins, Cristiano Zanin Martins and Rafael Valim, based on the observation that the law is being used strategically in several countries to obtain illegitimate purposes of a geopolitical, political, financial or commercial nature.
The Kings College London event took place on Tuesday 22 June 2021 with former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President Lula’s lawyers and authors Cristiano Zanin Martins and Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins, co-author Rafael Valim Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester in the UK and Visiting Professor at Université Le Havre Normandie France, Professor Alfredo Saad-Filho Professor of Political Economy and International Development in the Department of International Development and John Watts, a UK based advisor to the Lawfare Institute.
Lawfare: Waging War through Law is published in the UK by Routledge.
The attorneys Cristiano Zanin Martins, Valeska Teixeira Martins and Rafael Valim will promote on December 5, at the University of London in England, the international launch of the newly created Lawfare Institute.